**Mordia Garden Plaza**
He crawled into the shelter of a destroyed and burning piece of a riot machine. The fierce yet gentle flames kept him warm while the hunk of platinum kept the wind from freezing the blood that was running down his skin. As he started to black out, he heard a voice.
"Yo guys! Look! A huge load of destroyed machines! Raid time!" Then, he could see a redhead poke her head into his protective hull. She looked incredibly friendly with her large smile, but the large faded scar across her left cheek was a bit nerving, seeing as how she was only wearing a trainee uniform.
"Oh my! I found a body! Halt, Task Force! I'm gonna check if he's alive!" She could see that he was hardly conscious. He placed his hand over his chest, exactly over the microphone.
"Are you okay?" She asked him.
"Yeah…just need some healin."
"Okay…" She pulled out an X-potion and used it on him.
"What's your name?" He asked her.
"Riniah."
"Have we…met before?" Seifer asked her.
**"Rinah, there's nothing left here for me…""Want me to help?"
"Yes…"
"Stand up."
A flash of light…then nothing.**
Seifer snapped back into reality and realized that Riniah had snapped back as well.
"Are you okay? You kinda just…zoned."
"Yeah." He clutched his chest tighter.
"What's wrong?"
"It's just that…I'm being monitered."
"Oh…well, we'll be quiet if you need us to be."
"Yeah, like right now."
She shook her head and gestured a moment of silence to her partners.
"Commander Strider, this's Cadet Almasy. All's clear up to my point. Just follow the smoldering hulls of the riot machines."
"Copy that, Cadet." Marcos's chipper voice calmed Seifer down a bit. He grinned and walked over to the crew. He was surprised to see that, with the exception of Riniah, that there were only three other people in the empty square. One man stood wearing a baggy uniform with spiky blonde hair. The man next to him wore a more street outfit sporting his long silver hair. The hooded figure walking around carried a long wooden staff and showed not an inch of their skin, as if the Great Hyne had forced them to forsake their right to be seen.
Riniah smiled at him.
"The hooded one is Minoa. She's not much of a talker."
Minoa turned to the sound of her voice.
She then pointed at the blonde and silver-haired young men.
"The blonde is-"
"Lemme guess…Cloud."
The blonde laughed.
"Where in the Hell would you get Cloud from?!"
Seifer scratched his head.
"I don't know…just came to mind…"
"Well, he's Cairone and the silver haired one's Caine. Don't expect to ever see them apart."
"Are they…you know…"
"No…they're cousins."
"Can't tell."
Just then, Marcos and the rest of the cadets ran up behind them.